LAKERS

Jerry Buss wants him. The players do too. But nobody really knows what Dennis Rodman wants, if he’ll get in contact with the Lakers, and what he’ll say if he does.

So what happens now?

Though the Lakers and Rodman appeared no closer to staging direct conversations Wednesday than they were a day earlier, Laker management wasn’t ruling out the possibility of signing the flaky seven-time NBA rebounding champion, who happens to be an acquaintance of Buss, the Laker owner.

Meanwhile, the Orlando Magic, believed to be Rodman’s other NBA option, apparently is no longer interested.

And to heat things up, several Laker players strongly encouraged the acquisition of Rodman, even though there are worries that his erratic persona will disrupt this young and impressionable team.

“He won’t screw me up,” said 20-year-old Kobe Bryant. “If anything, he’s going to make me a better player.

“He’s played with the best. He played with Isiah Thomas. He played with “the Microwave” [Vinnie Johnson]. He played with Adrian Dantley. He’s played with Michael [Jordan], he played with [Scottie] Pippen.

“He is an incredibly smart player. I think it’d help me. I don’t see any possible way he could hurt my game. . . . He’s won, what, five NBA championships? What is there to talk about?”

Shaquille O’Neal has been pushing for days for the Lakers to sign Rodman.

Eddie Jones, for his part, said that the other Lakers would gladly ignore Rodman’s off-court antics as long as he grabbed rebounds and played hustling defense.

“In order to be a championship team, I think you have to ignore what guys do off the court,” Jones said. “I think you have to worry what they bring to the court.

“And what he brings to the court is everything that we need.”

Said Rick Fox when asked if the addition of the 37-year-old Rodman would undo all of the good that’s being accomplished by Derek Harper, also 37: “Gotta have the yin and the yang, you know?”

Executive Vice President Jerry West, who had a brief discussion Tuesday with Rodman’s International Creative Management theatrical agent, Steve Chasman, said the Lakers still don’t know how this situation will turn out. The Lakers also don’t know if Rodman and ICM are interested in him becoming a Laker at the veteran minimum salary of $1 million.

Chasman’s agent certification by the National Basketball Players Assn. is pending, according to an ICM spokesperson, but there are two other ICM agents representing Rodman--Andrew Reif and Richard Levy--who are certified, the spokesperson said.

“We don’t know what his position is,” West said. “He says he wants to play basketball, but he hasn’t chosen to do that. And we start our season Friday night. . .

“He has to want to play basketball . . . One day I read he retired, the next day I read he’s out partying somewhere. I guess there’s time for all those things in a full season, but this year there won’t be much time for that.

“It’s going to be a very, very intensive period of time and there’s not going to be a lot of time for anything other than basketball.”

In the afternoon, a Laker official said that as far as he knew there were no communications between ICM and the Lakers on Wednesday.

West, while saying that Rodman’s talents are undeniable, acknowledged that the Rodman-to-the-Lakers scenario very well could have been ignited when Rodman and Buss, two notable connoisseurs of night life, had dinner together recently.

“I think when they were having dinner, that possibility came up, I guess,” West said. “I’ve talked to Jerry about it. He’s always liked Dennis personally, and he knows him personally, and I’ll leave it at that.”